Husband and Wife’s Extra-Marital Extortion Conviction Affirmed

A husband and wife’s conviction for extorting extra-marital lovers for money is affirmed because the circuit court deemed the state's theft-by-coercion law as not being overly broad or vague 

Roberts v. Anderson, 2016 BL 208411, 5th Cir., No. 13-50587, 6/29/16.

   The Fifth Circuit found that a theft-by-coercion law was not overly broad or vague on its face or in its application in a husband and wife extortion case. The husband, after discovering his wife’s extra-marital affairs, began to extort his wife’s lovers. Things became even more interesting when the wife began joining her husband in the extortion.  Four men who were lovers of the wife were extorted out of money, being coerced to pay into a personal charity ran by the husband that was directed to him personally.

   The court reaffirmed the state district court’s verdict, finding that the statute for theft was appropriately applied. The circuit court found that the lower court’s analysis was solid enough to trigger the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act’s (AEDPA) deference towards state court decisions. Under the act, federal courts can only second-guess state decisions on habeas review if the decision went against or involved an unreasonable application of federal statute. By failing to meet this burden, the husband and wife duo were unable to have the state statute reviewed because the court found it to be not overly broad or vague.

http://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/document/Roberts_v_Anderson_No_13_50587_2016_BL_208411_5th_Cir_June_29_201.